318i Engine Swap

[xxxbimmer]

i have a 94 318i (m42 engine) 130k on it

My car is soo damn slow .....Should i attemt to change the tran and engine or just buy a new car..........looks good but slow ghead




but hey it looks fast

and yes my corners are ugly but i hit a deer and it broke the lens so i had to swap them out......i will replace them when i get new headlights

[mmclaren]

umm put another 318i engine in it and that will be sweet, i just did that to my 94 318i, but converting it to a v6 ummm well alot of work and you need a nice big $$$ bank account :P

[Shudogg]

I have a 96 318i (m44)(1.9 L) and though it doesnt have the displacement if the upper 3 series, it has some guts. Maybe you should swap one of these in...

Mods:rear half exhaust, full cold air intake, lightened flywheel and stage 2 clutch

The car is heavy so a four banger doesnt allways do the job but it revs fast

[Autotechnica]

Please tell me you have a 5 speed. Everything seems slow when you drive an auto.

Basic bolt-ons do wonders for the 318. Intake, exhaust, chip, throttle body. You'll be smoking 325 auto's off the line np, you'll murder any 320 (e36 or e46). Good god, 320's are dogs! I drove a newer E46 325 5 speed 2 days ago. Until 2 days ago, never drove anything but E46 M3 and 330. For some reason it felt a lot slower than my 318. Cars must be getting slower and heavier these days.

Don't bother with engine swaps for the 318, it's far too much work. You might as well invest some time and money and rip out some weight. If you're serious about performance, do some "freebie" mods and see if you're still unhappy. Then decide whether or not to take more drastic measures. In any case, if you've got an auto, it doesn't matter what engine you have. The M42/M44 isn't TOO bad, BMW's are just too damn heavy. I noticed you said swap out the tranny. Honestly, you can't bitch if you have an auto. It makes the car significantly slower. 4 cyl's have to be revved, kept light weight, and the more gears the better. Even if you swap a 325 motor, I seriously doubt you'll be happy with the performance even with the auto. It's not THAT much quicker until you get the manual gearbox. My advice at this point (if you really do have a dreaded auto), save up a bit of cash and buy either a 5 speed 325 or 328 (a total gem).



BTW mmclaren, no such thing as a BMW V6, they are all inline.

Bry

[supark]

Yeah, you'd be better off just saving your money and buying an M3 if you want to put a larger engine in there. Nice wheels btw.

[mmclaren]

my bad inline 6 :P